CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- A trio of players who lead America East in at least one statistical category are recipients of the women's lacrosse weekly awards. The nation's points leader in Stony Brook's Claire Petersen (Wantagh, N.Y./Wantagh) captures the Player of the Week award, teammate Michelle Rubino (East Setauket, N.Y./Comsewogue), dominant on the draw, is the Rookie of the Week, and University of Vermont senior goalkeeper Laura Barber (Middlebury, Vt./Middlebury) is the Defensive Player of the Week and leads the conference with 9.55 saves per game.
Petersen, the America East and NCAA Division I leader in points, improved her points per game total (6.6 ppg) with 19 points in two games last week. The junior scored seven goals and handed out 12 assists in two victories. Petersen's eight helpers against Iona broke her own school single-game record. In league play, she scored five goals and four assists to lead the Seawolves to a 19-8 win over Binghamton.
Rubino contributed to all aspects of the game, pouring in four goals and an assist and racking up nine draw controls, five ground balls and five caused turnovers in a 2-0 week. Against Binghamton, Rubino notched two goals, an assist and four ground balls, and caused four turnovers. Three of those four led directly to Stony Brook goals in transition. The rookie controlled eight draws, scored two goals and added a ground ball and caused turnover against Iona.
Barber collected two wins between the pipes for the Catamounts last week while making 23 saves at a .523 clip and posting a 10.5 goals against average. She also picked up six ground balls. Barber made 13 saves in a victory over UC Davis, then added 10 saves and five ground balls in a conference victory against New Hampshire. She held opponents to just 3-for-12 on free position shots last week.
Team Notebooks:
Albany (7-3, 0-1 AE) ended its two-game losing streak with a win at home against Stanford 11-9... Albany is 6-1 when it holds its opponents to 10 goals or less this season... Ariana Parker (Port Ewen, N.Y./Kingston) got back to scoring as she recorded five goals against the Cardinal. Parker has now tallied three games in which she has scored five or more goals... The Great Danes are 3-0 when Parker scores five or more times... Anna Berman (Garnerville, N.Y./North Rockland) recorded her sixth win in net. Berman made five saves and allowed nine goals to improve her goals against average from 9.95 to 9.85 and her save percentage to .347... The sophomore goalkeeper made a critical save with 2:20 left in the game against Stanford to preserve the win... Albany begins the back end of its 2012 schedule with its first of five remaining conference games against Binghamton on Wednesday then Boston University on Saturday, which is televised on Time Warner Cable Sports.
Binghamton (3-6, 0-2 AE) dropped its only contest of the week to visiting Stony Brook 19-8 over the weekend... The Seawolves jumped out to a 4-1 lead on the Bearcats and never looked back taking a 9-4 advantage into the break... Binghamton scored two goals in the final 1:20 of the first half to trim the deficit to five on goals by junior Kimberly McGeever (Northport, NY/Northport) and freshman Brittany Bailey (Glen Burnie, Md/Old Mill)... The five-goal halftime margin would be as close as Binghamton would get as Stony Brook went on a 5-1 run to begin the second half building a 14-5 advantage... Binghamton committed 26 turnovers and after controlling the draw circle in the first half, allowed Stony Brook to corral 12 of the 15 second-half draws... Freshman goalie Kara Pafumi (Fulton, NY/G. Ray Bodley) made a season-high 12 saves... McGeever finished with a team-high three goals while adding an assist... Binghamton continues its conference schedule as they travel to play defending America East champion Albany in an Interstate 88 battle on Wed. April 4... First draw is set for 4 p.m. at Albany’s John Fallon Field.
The Terriers (6-4, 2-0 AE) have now won five straight games, their longest win streak since their 13-game win streak in 2009... The Terriers overcame a seven-goal deficit with 18:11 to play in the second half against UMBC, scoring the final eight goals of the game... Danielle Etrasco and Mallory Collins have each scored in every game for the Terriers this season, while Kristen Mogavero has notched a goal in every game she has appeared in this season... Sophomore Sydney Godett collected four ground balls, caused three turnovers and controlled three draws against UMBC... Senior Annie Stookesberry has scored the game-winning goal for the Terriers in each of the last two games... Boston U. has outscored its opponents 73-45 in the second half.
Visiting Boston U. rallied from a seven-goal deficit in the second half and defeated host UMBC, 12-11 on March 31... After a victory over No. 13 Albany seven days ago, UMBC (4-6, 1-1) failed for the fourth time this season to win back-to-back contests... UMBC junior Kristen Bilney (Ellicott City, Md./Mount Hebron) scored a career-high four goals and has seven goals in two league games to date... Senior midfielder Alicia Krause (Ellicott City, Md./Mount Hebron) and junior midfielder Lindsay Cox (High Bridge, N.J.) each had a pair of goals, while freshman attacker Abby Wilson (Bel Air, Md./Fallston) had a goal and two assists for the Retrievers... Bilney has 16 goals on 29 shots this season and leads the squad in shooting percentage at 55.2 percent... In their last meeting, UMBC had defeated Boston U. by the identical 12-11 score at the 2011 America East semifinals... UMBC is +12 in goals scored in the first half this season, but a -12 in the second half... The Retrievers have a pair of road league contests next week, starting with an April 4 evening game at Stony Brook.
UNH (3-6, 1-1 AE) recorded a 12-11 victory against 12th-ranked Vanderbilt on March 28, then resumed America East action with an 18-8 road loss against Vermont on March 31… The Wildcats outscored Vandy 3-1 in the final 15 minutes and that included a goal by Laura Puccia (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) that broke an 11-11 tie at 4:07 and proved to be the game-winning goal… Puccia finished with career highs in both goals (five) and points (six), as well as five draw controls… Kathleen O’Keefe (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) matched her personal best of 14 saves against Vandy for a .560 save percentage in the game… O’Keefe was named UNH’s America East Player of the Game for her 11-save, four-ground ball effort at UVM; she surrendered 12 goals in 46+ minutes... O'Keefe stopped 11 of 14 (78.6 percent) free-position shots last week, including all five at UVM… Ilana Cohen (Andover, Mass./Andover) matched her career high of four assists vs. Vandy… Jenny Simpson (New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan) followed her six-point effort vs. Binghamton with five points (3g, 2a) against Vanderbilt. Simpson has climbed to the top of the team leaderboard in both goals (17) and points (22)… UNH was outscored 12-2 in the second half at Vermont, and the 12 goals marked the highest total allowed in a half this season… Kate Keagins (Bay Shore, N.Y./Bay Shore) extended her goal-scoring streak to 12 games and point-scoring streak to 14 with two goals vs. Vandy and a one-goal, one-assist effort at UVM.
Stony Brook (8-3, 1-0 AE) won both of its games last week to push its winning streak to three games... The Seawolves won at Iona and then defeated Binghamton in their America East opener...Claire Petersen (Wantagh, N.Y.) broke her own Seawolves single-game record in assists with eight at Iona. She had seven goals and 12 assists in two games for a 19-point week, the best two-game scoring performance in school history. Petersen leads the nation in scoring at 6.56 points per game and is only four assists away from tying the program single-season record of 42... Demmianne Cook (Nesconset, N.Y.) led all Seawolves with 11 goals last week. She posted six in the conference win over Binghamton. She has eight hat tricks this season and four games of five goals or more. She is only three goals away from tying the school's single-season record of 47... Freshman Michelle Rubino (East Setauket, N.Y.) played well on both ends of the field, scoring four goals while picking up nine draw controls and five caused turnovers during the week. Three of her four caused turnovers at Binghamton directly led to SBU goals. She leads America East in draw controls at 5.6 per game... Sophomore Frankie Caridi (East Northport, N.Y.) returned after missing five games due to injury to stop nine of 17 shots at Binghamton. She made five of her nine saves on free position attempts.She remains undefeated as a collegiate goalie and sports a 6.30 goals against average... Stony Brook will host UMBC Wednesday and Vermont Saturday.
Vermont (8-3, 1-1 AE) went 2-0 this week to match its win total from last season (8)... The Catamounts defeated UC Davis 16-13 behind five goals from Sydney Mas (Bedford, N.Y./St. George's) and five points from Samantha Stern (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill East)... Both Mas and senior Allison Pfohl (Niskayuna, N.Y./Niskayuna) reached the 100-career point milestone against the Aggies and both reached the mark in the first five minutes of the game... They are the second and third players to reach 100-career points this season, joining Stern... Vermont used a strong second half to earn an 18-8 victory over UNH... UVM out scored UNH 12-2 in the second half to earn its largest margin of victory over the Wildcats in the series history... Senior Adison Rounds (Centennial Colo./Arapahoe) collected five draws in the game and eclipsed 100 for her career. She is just the third Catamount in the program's history to surpass 100 career draws. She also scored a game-high six goals against the Wildcats... Stern picked up two assists in the win over UNH and begins the week tied with former Catamount Kristen Millar '09 for the single-season record for most assists (30)... UVM travels to Boston College on Wednesday (April 4, 4 p.m.) and to Stony Brook on Saturday (April 7, 1 p.m.).